Pols pledge not to obstruct KJ pipeline construction after village sues

Friday

Apr 12, 2013 at 6:33 PMApr 12, 2013 at 6:35 PM

Chris McKenna

Construction of the Kiryas Joel pipeline is expected to resume Monday, after a court appearance on Friday in which two elected officials promised not to obstruct the work and a judge declined to halt it until hearing further arguments.

Kiryas Joel officials filed court papers early Friday morning seeking to prevent Orange County Legislator Roxanne Donnery and Woodbury Supervisor John Burke from interfering with construction and to nullify a resolution by the county Legislature that sought to suspend the work.

In the meantime, attorneys for the Town and Village of Woodbury and Village of Harriman were asking the same judge to halt construction until hearing a case they filed this month on a matter connected to the pipeline project.

The case against Donnery and Burke was quickly resolved with their agreement in court that they wouldn’t get in the way of construction. Both had parked their cars in the work site on Seven Springs Mountain Road in Monroe on Wednesday, prompting a long standoff that eventually stopped workers from burying the water pipe.

Construction proceeded without incident on Thursday and was rained out on Friday.

Under Friday’s court agreement, observers will be allowed near the work zone under conditions that attorneys for the two side must still negotiate.

State Supreme Court Justice Francis Nicolai agreed to hear a request by the Woodburys and Harriman for a preliminary injunction to stop the project, and scheduled dates for the two sides to submit papers. But he denied them a temporary restraining order that would have brought an immediate halt to the work.

The Woodburys and Harriman want construction to stop until Nicolai has heard their lawsuit demanding further study of Kiryas Joel’s plan to connect a dormant well to its future pipeline in Cornwall. They argue that Kiryas Joel’s well could interfere with a Woodbury wellfield drawing water from the same aquifer.

In his order, Nicolai said he would reconsider a temporary restraining order after attorneys file papers for the injunction request. The final submission is due May 20.

The county Legislature voted 12-6 last week to stop work along county roads until Kiryas Joel secures the remaining permits for its plans to build a 13.5-mile pipeline to tap New York City’s Catskill Aqueduct. Those approvals would come from the state Department of Environmental Conservation and city Department of Environmental Protection.

Kiryas Joel’s attorneys and County Executive Ed Diana say the resolution carries no weight because the county already issued a permit for road construction and has no reason or authority to suspend it.

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